MEASURING AND PROCESSING ENVIRONMENTALLY RELEVANT DATA

Measurement and evaluation of environmentally relevant data play a cen tral role in the environmental debate. Effective environmental precaut ions are not possible without an efficient method of environmental ana lysis. Ever smaller quantities of harmful materials can be tracked dow n and checked with modem analytical methods. However with increasing s ensitivity there is also an increase in the susceptibility to errors, especially when taking and processing the samples. Higher requirements for quality monitoring when measuring environmentally relevant data h ave resulted in greatly increased costs. Reducing air-borne pollution forms the focus for assessing the environmental situation in cement pr oduction, but noise and vibration can also be important. There is an e xtensive range of efficient test methods available for continuous meas urements and spot measurements for monitoring emissions and immissions . Increasing importance is also being placed on the display, processin g and evalution of the measured data, ranging from the emission comput er for individual plants right up to centralized regional remote monit oring, and on setting up information systems covering all spheres. The methods of measuring and processing environmentally relevant data are not yet standardized internationally. The way in which the data is co llected and evaluated can affect the result. Added to this is the fact that research which is concerned with the effect of emissions and imm issions can no longer keep pace with the onward development of measure ment technology. This often leads to uncertainties and in some cases t o chaotic information policy. Clear objectives for the measurement, an alysis and evaluation of environmentally relevant data are absolutely essential on an international level to improve transparency and compar ability in the environmental debate.